Repetition

Day Three- May 12, 2010 8am-3:30

To be honest I am SOOOOOOO glad we rescheduled the six flag trip because today was a terrible day. It was cold, rainy, windy when I started my day and cold, cloudy, windy when I ended. The good news, however, is that I was inside having a great time teaching and molding the minds of young children. This morning I grabbed a muffin and some coffee and headed to work. The 7th grade class is not always the easiest group of kids to deal with in the morning, but today was a nice and relaxed day. We decided to go further into detail with two step equations and use an online program to strengthen their integer rules, which some were struggling with. Something Mr. Sperling said that I thought was interesting was that with these age groups you can't just pound them with new material and lectures every day, but instead you need to take some time out of the week to let them do an on your own pace activity where they can be more relaxed in class.

This is what today was like for most of the classes. They were activity based classes, mostly online activities that helped guide them through algebraic processes. Then the 7th grade advanced class came in and used an online program called "Explore Learning" that helped them visually see what happens when you manipulate the different variables in a quadratic equation. Next up was the 8th graders, where we introduced their end of year project. They were very excited to hear that there will be no more new concepts, but what they don't yet understand is that this project is quite time consuming. I hope that we can keep them focused and on task for the next two weeks. With this certain class being 19 kids it will be a difficult task, but one that we can handle. During one of planning blocks today we gave a couple kids some extra help. This was my first time doing a small group session, but I actually observed today to see what styles and tricks Mr Sperling had in store. Some things I saw was that he was very patient and supporting. I think that these are very important qualities when helping a student who struggling to understand a concept.

During our lunch break Mr. Sperling and I went out on the town, if you will, and grabbed a quick sandwich. We talked about private school vs. public and what it means pay wise whether or not you have you masters. It was really interesting to hear the information about college degrees and the business side of teaching. When we got back we had a meeting with a couple of other teachers who were discussing student issues. This is much like Proctors round tables and I know that 4 years ago I was probably one of the students they were talking about. HA! Next we had the second group of 8th graders in the Honors section. The class went over homework and then I went to the computer to help explain to the kids what the quadratic formula is and how you use it. The way the system is set up in the room is that the computer is hooked up to a projector that shows the screens image on a bigger screen. Mr. Sperling has a cool program much like Proctors smart-board and it helps with creating lessons and reviewing homework.The kids also used "Explore Learning" after the lesson to get a better understanding of the subject. Our last planning block I decided that I wanted to create a mini lesson plan for the 7th grade honors students. It will be a difficult one and honestly something that took me forever to grasp, but I have a feeling that once I teach it they will not only fully understand, but be able to ask me questions about it I won't be able to answer. Mr Sperling and I decided it would be a fun change of pace and that he, too, is interested in whether or not they can grasp the concept of DERIVATIVES!

Tomorrow should be an interesting day for me because this will be my first time standing up in class and giving a lesson. I have faith in myself to stay calm and not get nervous, but I also know that I may mess up and I need to just keep moving forward. This teaching job isn't so easy after all, but it wouldn't be as fun if there weren't any challenges.